


causation

by ggwynbleidd



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 17:23:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14313561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ggwynbleidd/pseuds/ggwynbleidd
Summary: everyone has a different story





	causation

**Author's Note:**

> self indulgence is self care, stuck in my feelings after power binging this show, have fun!

Jim says it’s a sales call. For a nonprofit, OUTreach Youth, a resource center for gay teens. Oscar talks Andy into giving them a discount since they’re a nonprofit. Dwight and Jim go together and it’s Dwight’s idea for them to pretend to be a couple. They had pulled off the Schrupert siblings plenty of ties, but they became the Schrupert couple with comfortable ease. Jim says he doesn’t find it uncomfortable. At first.

Dwight spends the entire car ride talking about ways to make it obvious that he’s the sexually dominant of the two. He finally decides the best signifier will be Jim’s oddly feminine hips and lilting voice.

Jim ignores it as he stares out the window.

OUTreach is a nice, small building with stock photos of smiling teens holding hands and reading books. The person they talk with is named Yvonne and she has bright eyes and a nice suit. She shakes Jim’s hand with a forceful handshake but speaks with a kind voice. As they talk, Dwight puts an arm around Jim’s shoulders and draws him close. Yvonne’s smile grows. They sit with their hands locked together and Jim tries to ignore Dwight looking at him with genuine fondness.

She thanks them for the discount and Jim mentions Oscar. She looks almost dumbfounded at the idea that a local business is so open to hiring three gay men. Dwight behaves himself an odd amount. Jim doesn’t mind. As Yvonne talks more Jim starts to feel a pit of guilt in his stomach form. OUTreach is a great commission and Dwight holds his hand on their way out. He chuckles secretly as they do. Jim doesn’t find it funny. But he still keeps his fingers locked with Dwight’s.

Pam says it started two weeks before that. She’s sitting at her desk at reception and feels light fingers feeling the material of her sweater. Her eyes go up, but not too far up, to the figure standing above her. Angela picks and pulls at the little balls of material on her sweater and threads. She seems unbothered by Pam’s stare and she keeps working. Pam swears she’s humming.

Her sweater is pilling Angela says. She explains the best way to wash a sweater is to wash it by hand and Pam finds herself listening with rapt attention. It’s someone coming up to talk with her that wasn’t something about faxes. It’s appreciated. Pam puts her chin in her hand and keeps her eyes on Angela while she smiles. Angela finally pulls herself from her own thoughts and her eyes locked with Pam. The two stare silently before Angela shuffles back to her desk.

Everything is routine for a few moments and Pam is surprised to see Angela come up to her with a small razor in her hand. Angela hands it to Pam and mumbles that it’s a way to get rid of pills before returning to her work. Pam spends most of the day picking and shaving balls of fluff off of her chest and arms in between answering phones. It’s an oddly pleasant sensation and she ignores the odd looks she gets from everyone. Even Jim.

A hand taps on her shoulder at lunch.

Angela pulls another small ball from Pam’s back and rolls her eyes at the hopeless look she receives in response. What is Pam supposed to do, grow extra long arms? She is taken aback when she sits back at her desk and Angela spends her break shaving...her back? Sort of? The light contact feels nice and they ignore the looks that they’re getting. Jim especially, as he shoots Pam confused look one after another. Pam doesn’t mind.

Of course, Angela has a different story. It’s three months after all that, as she sits at her desk crying while Kevin and Oscar ignore her. She doesn’t think it’s malicious and she doesn’t want their sympathy. Numbers blur as she tries to add and work payroll. The picture of Bosco sits right under her monitor and it hurts. He was dressed up as Cupid for Valentine’s Day, reds and pinks and whites going well against his black fur.

Nobody knows what to do.

Everyone whispers about Angela who cries throughout the day like she’s lost a child. Michael keeps giving her weird looks from between the blinds of his office and she can feel everyone look at her when a hiccup or sniff is too loud. She eventually pushes the frame picture side down and tries to continue working. Bosco had been with her since college, snuck in past her RA as a tiny kitten that could fit in drawers.

It takes a while for people to realize that Angela is back to her normal self. It only takes a couple of days. She grieves quickly. It had been that way with grandparents, her mother, with every cat. She has been told to “get over it” too many times so she tries to keep her tears to herself. A pair of eyes still follow her movements to and from as she stands and goes. Angela tries to ignore it and not let it bother her. Jim is probably thinking of doing another one of his dumb pranks.

That is, until the day that Jim loudly starts talking about a cat that had kittens near where he lives. He assures Angela that they were brought inside. Mom and babies are fine. He emails everyone pictures and they make her smile, even if they are curled up in an old box together instead of a proper bed. The photos continue as they get bigger and bigger, as eyes open, as they become less shaky and unsure. Then Jim starts talking about adopting a few out. Toby takes one for his daughter, Stanley for his, Bob Vance comes by and asks about one while Phyllis is on a sales call one day. Kelly asks about one in particular and gets mad when Jim turns her down. Angela comes into work one day to a pet carrier on her desk. Inside is a tiny black kitten, mewling and begging to be loved.

Dwight thinks they’re all wrong. Of course he won’t say it to their faces. He sees it in Jim and Pam, conspiratorial whispers and soft giggles. He sees it in Angela as she comes by to talk about commission and paychecks more often. Angela and Pam are also painfully obvious as they sit in the break room and titter, as Pam puts a hand on Angela’s knee and her back straightens out with surprise. Jim is a bit harder to pin down until Dwight thinks about the frustrating times they spent together, about how it must have been some kind of pigtail pulling. Dwight stops for a moment and thinks about it with seriousness. He knows the looks that Jim shoots him from over his computer monitor as a smile creeps across his face like a shadow over the day. The same look that Pam gives Dwight as well. All smiles and sweetness.

If you ask Dwight, he’ll say it’s none of your business.

He’s lying, of course. It takes him a while to think of when it all started. He really only knows what he saw. It’s soft conversation on the stairwell with Jim. Pam’s soft voice when he’s hurt and needs help the most. It’s Angela’s sureness in herself and of Dwight. It’s the first time Jim reaches for Angela’s shoulder when Michael starts teasing her about being a crazy cat lady. It’s Pam adjusting ties, cleaning glasses, pinning and braiding hair. It’s how they pile up onto the same sofa with soda and tea and popcorn. It’s how Angela’s head rolls onto Jim’s shoulder, how Pam relaxes into Dwight’s side. It’s Dwight and Jim stretching long arms and touching hands before their fingers lock.

That, Dwight thinks, is how they all fell in love with each other.


End file.
